


Insignia

by roane



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Inspired by Art, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Translation Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 21:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1616975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roane/pseuds/roane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Stop looking like a kicked puppy, will you? It’s not like it was <em>my</em> arm.” </p><p>Bucky's original mechanical arm is no more, and Steve is feeling guilty about it. (Based on art by <a href="http://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/84758901453">Kaciart</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Insignia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaciart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaciart/gifts).
  * Translation into Español available: [Insignia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1647125) by [randomsociopath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomsociopath/pseuds/randomsociopath)



> Based on [this lovely art by Kaciart](http://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/84758901453), and the prompt for it: "So my sister had wanted a scenario where Bucky damages his arm enough that he loses it. Preferably saving Steve in the process."

They sit in silence in the hospital—really Bucky doesn’t need to be here. The worst of the damage was to the part of him that wasn’t flesh, and the rest of the damage, well, Bucky’s had worse.

He can’t handle the guilt on Steve’s face. He wants to explain to Steve, but he doesn’t know how. All Steve can see is that Bucky is wounded and he thinks that’s his fault—again. 

How can he make Steve understand? That arm, that hateful arm with its red star and gleaming metal, Bucky’s glad it’s gone. Without it, it feels like he’s left behind the last remnant of the life he wants to forget. Ironic, with all the things he’s lost, that there would still be things he wishes he could lose.

He’s talked to Sam, who sent him to Natasha, who sat him down and gave him a long talk about giving up responsibility for the things you couldn’t control, even if it was your body that did them. From what he knows of her, she knows what she’s talking about.  

Well, it was a long talk coming from Natasha, anyway. It lasted about five minutes and ended with her offering to spar with him when he gets out.

Finally, the day they’re going to discharge him, Bucky tries. “Stop looking like a kicked puppy, will you? It’s not like it was  _my_  arm.”

Steve looks a little shocked, blue eyes wide. “But you got hurt—”

"You’re alive. You think I wouldn’t’ve given my real left arm to keep you safe?" When Steve tries to protest, Bucky waves at him to stop. "It wasn’t part of me that I lost. It was part of  _him_. And the less of him I have around the better.”

Steve frowns, but drops it.

Later, when Stark shows him the new arm he’s developed, Bucky makes one suggestion.

When he shows off the new arm to Steve, his eyes tear up and he grabs Bucky into a fierce hug.

In place of the red star on his left shoulder, there’s a small blue insignia shaped like a wing—like the wing Bucky used to wear on his sleeve during the war. 

"You didn’t have to—" Steve says.

"I did. In case I ever need a reminder of where I really come from."


End file.
